Stat of the day: 2bn

The number of extra, unpaid hours workers put in last year, according to a survey by the TUC.

Feeling a little sleepy today? We don’t blame you – a survey by the TUC has shown that employees worked an extra (and thus unpaid) two billion hours last year. That’s enough to exhaust anyone.

According to the snappily-titled Labour Force Survey Summer Quarter 2011, 5.3m workers put in an average of 7.2 hours of unpaid work every week last year, which was worth about £5,300 per person per year – which saved employers a whopping £29.2bn. In fact, said the TUC, if those who worked unpaid overtime regularly did it all at the start of the year, the first time they’d get paid would be February 24. Ouch.